Publication: Business Day
Issued:
Date: 2009-11-24
Reporter:
The settlement agreement between former national director of public
prosecutions (NDPP) Vusi Pikoli and the government makes for fascinating
reading.
The government concedes that Pikoli is “professionally competent, sufficiently
experienced and conscientious and (has) the requisite integrity to hold a senior
public position”.
Craftily, of course, it is left unstated whether or not “senior public position”
includes the role of NDPP not least because it would be an explicit admission
that former president Thabo Mbeki erred in suspending
Pikoli. Still, this agreement is to be welcomed as well as puzzled over.
The agreement vindicates Pikoli. If Pikoli genuinely lacked the ability to make
sensitive judgments about the security of the state and was unable to balance
national security concerns with more pedestrian ones like going after
financially imprudent police commissioners, then why would the government now
describe the same man as being in possession of professional competence,
sufficient experience and, loftier still, requisite integrity and
conscientiousness?
This surely calls into question the rationale of the initial Mbeki decision to
suspend Pikoli, if not the motive for such a decision. In fact, while it removes
a cloud from Pikoli’s head, it shoves one over Mbeki’s.
Either Mbeki’s decision was taken in good faith but lacked justification, or it
was taken in bad faith. It is not obvious which one is the more correct
explanation.
Recall, for example, that at the time Mbeki opted for obfuscation by simply
declaring that the reason for the suspension was that there had been an
“irretrievable breakdown in the working relationship” between Pikoli and then
minister of justice and constitutional development Brigitte
Mabandla .
There is a related puzzle in then president Kgalema Motlanthe
’s decision to confirm the dismissal on the dubious grounds that Pikoli was
unable to take sensitive decisions regarding our national security.
He ignored the basic recommendation of the Ginwala commission that Pikoli should
be reinstated. Why? This question is not eliminated simply by virtue of the fact
that a settlement agreement has now been reached.
It is, of course, good to have the way paved for a permanent new NDPP to be
appointed. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) cannot function without
adequate and clear leadership.
But this does not mean that we should feel satisfied that all the surrounding
issues have been dealt with. The remaining questions here still have to be
answered.
In the meanwhile, though, we can get on with restoring the independence of the
NP A with the selection of someone who has both actual and perceived
independence and credibility as the new NDPP.
by: geanann on: Nov 24 2009 1:41PM
Reeks of cover-ups and kills Pikoli's reputation as one of the few with
integrity Now:
http://letterdash.com/g.annandale/pot-shots-24-Nov-2009 Then
http://letterdash.com/g.annandale/pikoli-fighting-for-survival
by: shannig on: Nov 24 2009 8:11AM
The sacking of the honest Vusi Pikoli was also
a precondition for Mokotedi Mpshe's illegimitate,
i.e. unconstitutional, withdrawal of all charges against the unprosecutable
leader without whose complicity Shabir Shaik could not
have been convicted of corruption. And he did it with brazen impunity in front
of national TV! Guess who will be the next NDPP?
by: mikeA on: Nov 24 2009 9:10AM
Maybe the next NDPP will be Yunus Shaik...
With acknowledgements to Business Day.
The matter of Vusi Pikoli is one of the
most despicable ever to have happened in the history of this country.
It was started by the Great Manipulator Among Us when the DSO and NPA
investigators started realising the involvement of Mbeki in the Arms Deal.
Pikoli was advised and as NDPP he had to be the point man with the presidency
regarding things like requests for interviews, etc.
Needless to say that Mbeki refused to be interviewed by the Arms Deal
investigators (this should have been under Section 28 of the NPA Act).
And it got Pikoli fired.
Selebi was just a smokescreen.
There was no logical reason to protect Selebi; the SAPS was not going to riot,
Selebi was not even a policeman himself and certainly was not doing a good job
as Chief of Police, unless one watches those American police TV stories where
the Chief of Police is always black and nearly always on the take or otherwise
up to no good.
Unless Selebi had Mbeki's testes tightly in hand through his knowledge of money
laundering, specifically laundering of Arms Deal money.
It is known that Thyssen paid USD25 million to secure the corvette platform
contract and it is clear from the document trail that Thomson-CSF paid R250
million to R300 million to secure the corvette combat suite deal. It is known
that British Aerospace paid R1,2 billion to secure the Hawk and Gripen deals and
there are indications that Ferrostaal paid around R300 million to secure the
submarine deal. That's about R2,1 billion in bribes and commissions.
This money had to go somewhere and it is clear that most of the clever money was
warehoused offshore. There is incontrovertible documentary evidence of money
going to the British Virgin Islands, Channel Islands and UK.
There are other indicators of money going to Australia, Malaga in Spain and
Malaysia, possibly even China (Macau is a good place to start).
One of the few skills, other than peeling bananas, that Selebi had (sorry, did I
see these getting squashed straight into his chacma?), was international money
laundering. This skill might had been honed with the assistance of the master
himself, Brigadier-General Wouter Basson.
Great collection of names and I might get accused of conspiracy theorising, but
I'm not. I've seen some of it (unfortunately no copies allowed) and I've heard
the rest of it, some of it from people who are now dead.
.
The point is that Rr,1 billion had to go somewhere. Fana Hlongwane couldn't have
spent all of it on pretty cars and fast whores. Schabir and his friend could
only spend about R30 000 per month on a golfing assistant called Robin, but that
only last a few years at most and now the AFU has taken all his Arms Deal money
except enough to play golf every second Wednesday. I think he has also
downgraded from Johnnie Walker Blue to Johnnie Walker Black.
Richard Charter only managed to spend R15 million on tearing a house down in
Hermanus and rebuilding it plus another R25 million building a whorse stud in
the North West, then he got the Big Recall.
Chippy was too scared to touch his stash in the UK because it was being watched
by a Hawk.
Joe Modise managed to refurbish his house in Erasmuskloof (mostly for free from
Denel) and get a new wife and a couple of blood transfusions (some for free from
Llew Swan, CEO of Armscor) before he got his Big Recall.
Tony Ellingford trucked to Perth, fell out with his wife and his best friend,
and generally became very miserable.
Jayzed is the only one who has come clean on his deal. He got R250 000 (less a
few Rands in foreign exchange deductions) from Thomson-CSF of France via Turkey
and Mauritius and Nkobi Holdings and managed to spend most of this on a low cost
accommodation for his extended family in rural kwaZulu-Natal. He had to forfeit
the other R50 000 due from Thomson-CSF when this became too hot to handle. But
no problem, his mate sorted this out by making R4 million odd in ex gratia
payments to fund, private schools, cars, cellphone for 27 children, about 20 of
which were born out of wedlock. Of course a hefty dollop of the wonga was
required to buy a few dozen head of Nguni cattle to pay off the fathers of
various brides and brides to be. Off course all of this money actually
originally came from South African taxpayers paid to the SA Revenue Services
then to the SA Treasury then to the SA Department of Defence then to Armscor
then to African Defence Systems (Pty) Ltd then to Thomson-CSF Naval Combat
Systems.
So the question remains, where is the R2,1 billion, plus about the same again in
interest?
Do you think Pikoli's successor is going to find it?
If he does, can I get 10% for services rendered? I'll pay the due tax on it?